Briefly, bamboo

Every year as winter comes to a close (or appears to as our crazy warm temperatures seem to indicate) I take a look at the bamboos and assess the cold damage that was done.

Although we've had an overall quite mild winter, there were a couple of cold snaps where the temperature got down to about 4ºF (-15ºC) each time. Even a night of this will cause damage to most temperate bamboos.

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Although I'm not going to show you a survey of the leaf buds and dead branches yet -- probably a few weeks at least too early for that -- I will give you a little glimpse.

Most of the Phyllostachys species are primarily green with just some browning at their tops.

The difference is in the marginal species like Phyllostachys nigra...

...which most likely has topkilled again, meaning that it will probably be a smaller plant again this summer. We'll see though, as some of the culms may have survived.

I have a good chance right now to see where the Sasaella bitchuensis -- which is showing lots of leaf damage -- has mixed with the Sasa oshidensis:

Those Sasa leaves are almost pristine! Easy to prune out the ratty Sasaella now.

Still plenty to enjoy even in winter-damaged bamboos:

So a mixed bag for the bamboo this winter. More in the near future...

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